Newton Stewart Walks

Home , Creetown, Galloway Hills, Minnigaff, Newton Stewart, River Cree, Wigtown Bay

Gateway to the Galloway Hills

Cree Bridge and gardens Creebridge Newton Stewart - ‘Land of Silvery Winding Cree’

Newton Stewart, Gateway to the settlements of Creebridge and Galloway Hills, lies in the heart Minnigaff, dating back to medieval of Galloway. The town sits at the times while Newton Stewart itself lowest bridging point of the River originated in the late eighteenth Cree which winds its way from its century as a planned town using the source in Loch Moan high up in water of the Cree to power textile Galloway Forest Park to its estuary at mills. Four bridges, two vehicular Creetown and Wigtown Bay. and two pedestrian, cross the Cree within the precincts of the town Newton Stewart owes its character and another two cross its tributary to the Cree which formed the the Penkiln. These feature in our historic boundary between the two picturesque walks and provide a districts of Galloway - the Stewartry viewpoint from which to watch of Kirkcudbright to the east and the many anglers on the hunt for ‘the Shire’- Wigtownshire- to the salmon, sea trout and brown trout. west. On the east bank lie the old 2 Today Newton Stewart stretches for a The Walks mile and a half along the west bank of the Cree with the low-lying town 1. Riverside Poetry Walk centre backed by steep streets and lanes leading to newer residential 2. Cree Flood Plain areas from which you can enjoy 3. Old Minnigaff and the Two Rivers spectacular views of the Galloway 4. The Town Periphery Hills. The town is dominated by the great rounded mass of Cairnsmore 5. Doonhill Woods of Fleet with the more northerly 6. “The Country Ones” Walk skyline of the Minnigaff Hills, Larg, Lamachan and Curleywee, visible 7. Penkiln Burn and Cumloden from several walks. Deerpark Within the town centre the walker 8. The Port Road should look out for interesting 9. Moss of Cree and Wigtown, buildings such as the old town hall and Scotland’s Booktown clock tower, the Art Deco cinema, now a thriving community cinema, and the octagonal livestock mart which reminds us that Newton Stewart is still an important market town for the surrounding farming community. The countryside and its wildlife is on the doorstep with woodlands, like Doonhill and Bower Wood, right on the edge of the town while Galloway Newton Stewart Forest Park and Wigtown Bay Local Gateway to the Galloway Hills Nature Reserve lie within easy walking distance. The walker has a good chance of seeing red squirrels, roe and fallow deer in the forests and fields while the bird life ranges from the summer warblers of the woodlands to the winter spectacular of overwintering wildfowl on the mudflats of the estuary.

United Nations Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Educational, Scientiﬁc and Cultural Organization member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves 3 Walks 1 to 7 are circular walks, ending at the car park while walks Bridge of

A714 Cree 8 and 9 are longer linear walks finishing at Creetown and Wigtown B7079

River Cree respectively. Public transport is M

a available for the return journey or, Victoria Street s

Riverside Road o

Newton n

i if you prefer, you can take the bus e

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Stewart D out to Creetown or Wigtown and

i v e walk back into town. Bus service, Church Lane 415, serves Wigtown to Newton

Riverside Stewart at approximately hourly Car Park intervals on weekdays, less All walks Dashwood start here frequently on Sunday. Services Square Footbridge Albert Street 500/X75/431 provide a regular P ods Queen St. Go L service between Creetown and an Princes St. e Newton Stewart. The 500 service is wheelchair accessible. For detailed information, check Dumfries and Galloway Council website The walks in this booklet are an www.dumgal.gov.uk and click on introduction to the many and varied ‘bus time tables’ from the home walking opportunities in Newton page or call Traveline Scotland on Stewart and district. They have 0871 200 2233. been chosen to encourage people of all degrees of fitness to explore We hope we have whetted your the town and its surroundings on appetite to explore further afield. If foot and to help promote Newton so the information board outside the Stewart as a ‘Walkers are Welcome’ Belted Galloway Visitor Centre in the town. They are easy or moderate Riverside Car Park shows the walking walks and all start at the Riverside opportunities throughout the Cree Car Park (NX413 653) in Newton Valley, or why not join us each May Stewart. for the popular Newton Stewart Walking Festival.

Creemills Suspension Bridge over River Cree Route Information

• A brief description of the route, • Keep dogs under close control at terrain, approximate distances all times and times and points of interest • Keep to paths across farmland are given for each route. • Take care on country roads • Each walk is colour coded in the booklet with matching route- • Use gates and styles to cross markers on the ground. fences, hedges and walls • The description ‘barrier- • Respect farm livestock, crops and free’ indicates suitability for machinery wheelchairs or childrens’ buggies. • Take your litter home with you • The orange covered OS Explorer • Protect wildlife, plants and trees 1:25,000 maps numbers 319 and 311 cover the area in detail. • Guard against risk of fire • Enjoy the countryside and respect • Make no unnecessary noise its life and work • Take particular care crossing A75 • Leave gates as you find them 5 Walk 1: Riverside Poetry Walk

Route: Start and finish at Riverside Car Park, taking in both banks of the River Cree from the A75 to the Cree Bridge. Creebridge Description: Circular riverside in ’Scan Horizons’ inscribed on a walk with added interest of poetry granite seat. inscriptions, also published in Cree At the underpass under the A75, Lines by Liz Niven. The verses celebrate climb the steps to the right and cross the importance of the Cree in defining the river to the anglers’ lay-by where the character of Newton Stewart. another poem engraved on granite, Distance: 1.5 miles/2.5km ‘Stravaigers’s Rest’, reminds us of travellers through Galloway as well Time: Allow 1 hour. as local folk. Descend the path to Terrain: Includes paved path and side the stile into the fields and proceed roads and grass path which may be to the west end of the Sparling wet. Mainly level but includes steps, Bridge with its verse reminding stile and kissing gate. us that the Cree is the historic boundary between the Stewartry This walk is enlivened by inscriptions (Kirkcudbrightshire) and the Shire of poetry celebrating the River Cree, (Wigtownshire) written by local poet, Liz Niven, as part of a project for Newton Stewart Carry straight on along the riverside Initiative with words and ideas to the main road before turning left provided by local people. Before across the attractive Cree Bridge. This leaving the Riverside Car Park enjoy bridge was built in 1813, replacing the verse, ‘Cree Seasons’, on the an earlier wooden bridge and ford plaque on the river bank and the on this important river crossing poem ‘Brig’ engraved on the metal point with its old tollhouse. Turn left of the pedestrian Sparling Bridge, passing the gardens and memorial to celebrating the fish of the Cree. Randolph, Ninth Earl of Galloway. If you turn left to the riverside at the Leave Riverside Car Park following eighteenth century clock tower, you the signed footpath on the west will spot the last poem, ‘Cree Voice’, bank of the Cree, looking out for engraved in the sandstone surface anglers and river birds like mallards, of the river wall, before returning to swans and goosander and the views the car park. 6 of Cairnsmore of Fleet described Walk 1: Riverside Poetry Walk

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Route: Riverside Car Park to Nether Barr returning by same route Description: Pleasant stroll along the banks and floodplain of the River Cree with views of the Minnigaff Hills River Cree

Distance: 2.6 miles/4.2km The river meanders in wide sweeps Time: Allow 1.5 hours across its floodplain and this area frequently floods when heavy rain Terrain: Barrier-free, all on paved and high tides coincide. To the left cycle path; mainly on the level but of the footpath lie marshy meadows including approximately 60m stretch with reed beds on the right. Look out with 14% gradient. for the plants such as rushes, sedges, The first section of this walk follows lady’s smock and meadow sweet the same route as the first part of associated with this habitat. Walk 1 and you should pause in the Take a breather at the handy bench Riverside Car Park to read the verses and enjoy the view to the left of the on the plaque on the riverbank and hill mass of Cairnsmore of Fleet and on the entrance to the Sparling foot the village of Blackcraig. The rocks bridge. This bridge, completed in around Cairnsmore of Fleet contain 1998, is named after sparling, a rare mineable seams of lead and copper fish breeding only in the River Cree and Blackcraig was a centre of lead and two other sites in Scotland. mining in the late eighteenth and This route stays on the west bank nineteenth centuries. of the Cree so leave the Riverside Turning at Nether Barr retrace Car Park following the signing for your route back to town , enjoying the Riverside Walk. Look out for the fine views of the town and its the birds which frequent the river - backdrop of the Minnigaff Hills - mallards , mute swans and swallows Larg, Lamachan and the distinctive skimming over the river surface on ‘peak’ of Curleywee. In this direction summer evenings. you get a good impression of the Leaving the town behind, you pass site of Newton Stewart at the lowest under the A75 by-pass bridge and bridging point of the River Cree and follow the cycle path which skirts appreciate why it earns its title as the 8 the edge of the Cree floodplain. ‘Gateway to the Galloway Hills’. Walk 2: Cree Flood Plain

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Route: Minnigaff, Queen Mary’s Bridge, Suspension Bridge, back to town centre via Windsor Road Waulk Mill Description: A circular walk through the old settlement of Minnigaff , Descend to the main road and cross featuring the bridges of the Cree to the lane on the left leading to the and Penkiln Burn. picturesque Queen Mary’s Bridge Distance: 2.7 miles/4.3km and the Penkiln Burn. The adjacent building, the Waulk Mill, is another Time: Allow 1.5 hours reminder of former industries based Terrain: Mixture of pavements and on water power. paved side roads plus a footpath. Turning left you climb to Monigaff Includes a few short climbs. Church occupying an old defensive Leaving Riverside Car Park, cross site at the junction of the Penkiln and the Sparling Bridge and turn left the Cree. Take time to explore the along the river side. Follow the motte and kirkyard with its medieval road, enjoying the fine view of church ruins before crossing the the Cree Bridge, to the junction pedestrian Suspension Bridge into the with the main road. Go straight ‘new town’ of Newton Stewart. ahead through the old settlement Turning left through the public of Creebridge passing the old Toll gardens you cross a mill lade House on your left. The pleasant walk before entering a new housing from Creebridge into the centre of development built on the site of the Old Minnigaff provides views of the former Cree Mills which continued rivers and passes fine buildings such the tradition of woollen and mohair as the old nineteenth century corn cloth manufacture until it closed in mill, now in residential use. the 1980s. At the main street cross After the Youth Hostel, veer right at diagonally and climb the steep the next junction up Old Edinburgh lane leading to a footpath which Road, a surviving section of the provides fine views of the town historic route which carried trade and surrounding woods and hills. and pilgrims from Edinburgh to At Windsor Road turn left straight Wigtownshire. At the last house, down the hill to the Salt Box Brae head left through the kissing gate before regaining the car park via the 10 along the lane into Bower Drive. main street. Walk 3: Old Minnigaff and the Two Rivers

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Route: Circuit round the periphery of Minnigaff via the Golf Course, Bower Newton Stewart golf course looking towards Cairnsmore of Fleet Wood and the Suspension Bridge returning via Old Hall Farm. Turn sharp left and follow Description: A walk with a pleasing waymarkers through the mature mixture of woodland and open coniferous plantation of Wild Wood space offering panoramic views of and Bower Wood with the chance the town. to detour to the left to visit the Doocot, a popular local landmark Distance: 4 miles/6.5km dating back to the early eighteenth Time: Allow 2.5 hours century. Leave the wood at the Old Edinburgh Road, and head downhill Terrain: Mainly unpaved paths with to the junction with the main road. likelihood of muddy sections; 80m of ascent with some moderate slopes. Turn right then first left, signed Wood of Cree Reserve, crossing first Crossing the Cree from Riverside Car the Penkiln Burn and then the Cree Park via the Sparling Bridge, turn left via the Suspension Bridge. Turn and follow the side road along the right following the paved road up river bank. At the main road at the to Douglas Terrace turning right Cree Bridge turn right, passing the at the telephone kiosk. At the 30 petrol station. Take the pedestrian mile limit take the track to the left route straight ahead through the signed Duncree House. Climbing the bollards to Kirroughtree Avenue. hill you look across the hillocks of Passing the golf pavilion on the left glacial moraine on your right with cross the line of the Old Military unfolding views of the Minnigaff Road, the old route to Ireland, and Hills. Duncree Wood on your left, take a path to the left leading to the under the management of Cree golf course. Skirt the golf course on Valley Community Woodlands, merits its right hand perimeter, watching a detour before reaching the corner out for players, but enjoying the fine of a plantation where you turn left views over the town and the policies down a dyke-edged farm track. of Kirroughtree House, once the seat Proceed down past Old Hall Farm of the Heron family and now a quality to Windsor Drive. Turn right at York hotel. At the far end of the golf course Road past the town tennis courts skirt the Lily Pond and enter the Wild and Newton Stewart Museum on 12 Wood through a gap in the wall. your way back to the car park. Walk 4: The Town Periphery

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Route: Riverside Car Park to Doonhill Wood via Albert Street and Princes Road; returning via Corsbie Road. Blairmount Pond

Description: A pleasant walk on Follow the Newton Stewart Walks the outskirts of Newton Stewart waymarkers which bear uphill and including woodland and pond area take you into Blairmount Park managed by Cree Valley Community through a stand of beech. Skirting Woodlands and panoramas of the the edge of the park, past the town and surrounding hills. pavilion, you reach a pond and Distance: 2.5 miles/4km boardwalk. This former curling pond has been modified by the Time: Allow 2.5 hours woodland trust to provide a variety Terrain: Mixture of paved sidewalks of habitat for plants like bogbean and woodland path. and march cinquefoil and look out for waterfowl, frogs and toads, or Leave Riverside Car Park via the dragonfly and damselfly hovering main access road signed to the over the summer waters. town centre. At the main street turn left past the Bank of Scotland. Leaving the pond, continue through At Dashwood Square turn right the larch plantation before taking a admiring, on the left, the mass left turn leading to Barnkirk Road. of McMillan Hall, a monument to Turn right for a few yards, then right Victorian confidence and enterprise. again and follow the side road which will take you back into town. On Climb up Princes Street until you the way you will enjoy spectacular reach a kissing gate on the right, views over Newton Stewart with which gives access to Doonhill Cairnsmore of Fleet straight ahead Woods. This area of mixed woods, and the Minnigaff Hills ranged on consisting of mainly ash, oak and the left. sycamore, is managed by Cree Valley Community Woodland Trust, whose The road leads past the Merrick vision is to recreate a continuous Leisure Centre and Douglas Ewart corridor of native woodlands High School, the secondary school along the full length of the Cree serving the Machars; at the foot Valley. This woodland brings spring turn right and then left opposite the bluebells, nesting tits and evening bowling green to return to the main street and car park. 14 bats right into the town. Walk 5: Doonhill Woods

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Route: Circular route from Riverside Reed beds on the River Cree Car Park, via Carsenaw, Parkmaclurg and Blackcraig. After Carsenaw Farm you pass the cottage, Rushiepark, which was Description: Easy walk in floodplain Aggie’s home. The name, like the of River Cree, the landscape of which ‘carse’ suffix in farm names, reminds is evocatively described in local us that this land is composed of author Mary Curran’s book “The marine clays deposited by post- Country Ones” which describes the glacial seas and needs careful childhood of young Aggie Kenny on drainage to maintain the fertile a Galloway farm in the post-World dairy-farming industry we see today. War 1 period. Continue on the gentle lane past the Distance: 5 miles/8.2km. meandering Cree whose “soughing Time: Allow 2.5 hours reeds” and the “flat full look of clay-coloured water when the tide Terrain: Barrier-free, level, on paved came creeping up from the bay” side-roads and cycle paths with two frightened Aggie. Then bear left crossings of the A75 trunk road. to cross the A75 into the approach Leave Riverside Car Park via the road to Blackcraig village - Aggie’s Sparling Bridge and follow the cycle “Hill Village”, where lead was mined path straight ahead, bearing left in the eighteenth and nineteenth through the housing estate until you centuries. Aggie and her father reach the main road (same as Walk liked to visit the McClurg family: 9) where you turn right, following “Mrs McClurg’s house was one of Aggie’s route to school. a straggling row of white-washed cottages with a thatched roof. Follow the cycle path until the Behind the house was a long garden junction at Machermore cemetery with a row of bee-boxes down one where you take the slip road on the side and a pig-house at the far end.” right before carefully crossing the A75 to Aggie’s hedge-bordered lane: Leaving Blackcraig, follow the “a country world that made up the Sustrans Route 7 cyclepath. Cross the Little Valley hemmed in between A712, past the site of a skirmish in Barr in the west and Larg in the east 1300 between English forces under with Cairnsmore looming behind Edward 1 and the Comyns in the for the sun to climb over in the Wars of Independence. Follow the morning.” old boundary wall of Kirroughtree 16 estate policies back into town. Walk 6: “The Country Ones” Walk

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Scale © Crown Copyright and Database right 2013 . All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Lic.100016994 17 Start at Riverside Car Park, Grid Reference NX413 653 Walk 7: Penkiln Burn and Deer Park - Cumloden Deer Park an extensive unfenced Route: Riverside Car Park, through area of land old Minnigaff, Queen Mary’s Bridge abandoned from to Cumloden Deer Park, returning Queen Mary’s Bridge via Knockman Wood and the agriculture Suspension Bridge to town centre. and converted into deer park for sport by General Sir William Stewart Description: A walk with attractive of Cumloden in the early nineteenth riverside and woodlands sections century. The moor is peppered with on Cumloden Estate and featuring prehistoric hut circles and cairns as the attractive Penkiln Burn and well as wildlife interest. Knockman Wood. Opposite a small white gate in the wall Distance: 4.6 miles/7.4 km. of the estate policies turn left, crossing Time: Allow 2.5 hours an area with a mosaic of bogs and grassy knolls and studded with lovely Terrain: Combination of paved park oak trees with spreading canopies. sidewalks and grassy paths which Fork left past a cairn-topped knoll may include boggy or muddy and climb through rough bracken- sections. Level or gentle slopes. covered ground to a gate leading into Cross the Sparling Bridge and turn Knockman Wood. This area of mixed left along the river bank, following woodland, now managed by Cree the side street to the main road Valley Community Woodlands, contains at Creebridge. Cross the road and much of archaeological interest, with head through Creebridge and Old deserted fermtouns and corn kilns Minnigaff, carrying straight ahead at recalling its farming past. Cumloden Road.* Turn sharp left keeping the spruce After the junction with Bower Drive plantation on your right and head turn left down a lane to Queen down to the public road, where you Mary’s Bridge across the Penkiln turn left and follow the road past Burn and turn sharp right along the Monigaff Church, before crossing streamside path. The Penkiln Burn the Cree on the Suspension Bridge. tumbles through mixed woodlands Across the bridge bear left through with banks of woodrush, while the the new housing estate on the site fields to the left are bordered by fine of the former Cree Mills ,climbing to examples of Galloway drystone dykes. join the main road at King St. Follow this street back to the town centre Passing through a kissing gate at enjoying the river views and the 18 Garden Cottage you enter Cumloden pleasant riverside gardens. * For further description see Walk 3. Walk 7: Penkiln Burn and Cumloden Deer Park

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Route: Newton Stewart to Creetown via Stronord, Strathmaddie, old railway line cycle path with return by bus. Creetown Description: A pleasant linear walk from here to Stronord masks the old to the village of Creetown, with mining landscape of mine shafts, adits woodland stretches, and panoramic and spoil heaps * views of the Cree Estuary. At Stronord enjoy the view of the Distance: 7.5 miles/12 km. great hill mass of Cairnsmore of Fleet. Keeping straight ahead at the Time: Allow 4 hours. crossroads you cross the old stone Terrain: Tarred side roads and cycle bridge across the Palnure Burn which path with one short but very steep drains Bargaly Glen, one of the loveliest section. glens in the area. Starting at Riverside Car Park, cross Turn right and follow the road until you the Sparling Bridge and go straight reach the Greddock Burn where you ahead along a hedge-fringed join a section of the old railway line, cycleway. At the housing estate bear the Port Road, which served Stranraer left until you reach the main road. and Northern Ireland, before the Turn right and thereafter follow the Beeching axe fell in the 1960s. For the signed Sustrans cyclepath 7 all the next half hour you pass through mixed way to Creetown. woods and shaded railway cuttings The first section follows the old where the water-soaked rocks provide boundary wall of the policies of an ideal habitat for many varieties Kirroughtree Estate before crossing of mosses and ferns, including hart’s the A712 to Blackcraig village. As you tongue, polypody, and maiden hair climb the steep Mines Hill, pause to spleenwort. Enjoy spectacular views of enjoy views of the Cree floodplain. the carse lands of the meandering Cree, At the top of the hill you will pass under sea level in post-glacial times, ruins of the cottages of Blackcraig and later reclaimed from peat bog to mining village where lead and copper yield fertile dairying farmland. Areas of were mined in the late eighteenth unreclaimed moss are still visible. At the and nineteenth centuries. You are end of the cycle path, follow the road now entering Galloway Forest Park. into Creetown where the fine public The coniferous forest, with its fringe space of Adamson Square reminds you of its granite heritage. 20 of beech trees, which clothes the hill * For more information visit Kirroughtree Visitors’ Centre and follow the Lade Trail. Walk 8: The Port Road

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Scale © Crown Copyright and Database right 2013 . All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Lic.100016994 21 Start at Riverside Car Park, Grid Reference NX413 653 Walk 9: The Moss Of Cree and Wigtown, Scotland’s Booktown

Route: Newton Stewart to Wigtown via cycle path and Moss of Cree Road. County Buildings, Wigtown Description: A linear walk through the flood plain of the River Cree steadings and intensive production. skirting Wigtown Bay Nature Reserve Farm names like Carsenestock and to historic Wigtown. Borrowmoss remind us that this land has been reclaimed from peat bog. Distance: 8 miles/13km. Passing the farm road of Grange of Time: Allow 4 hours Cree vistas of Wigtown Bay and the Terrain: Barrier-free route on paved, estuary of the Cree open out. Looking mainly level, surfaces but with two across to the east side of the river, short steep sections. Return possible Creetown, the Ferrytoon of Cree, by bus but vehicle may not be sheltered under the Larg Hill and, wheelchair-accessible further south, the scars of its former Leave Riverside Car Park along the granite quarries are visible on the west bank of the Cree, following the hillside. same route along the cycle path as Crossing Bishop Burn, the old county Walk 2, as far as Nether Barr. town of Wigtown, sitting on its At Nether Barr continue along the drumlin mound and overlooking the cycle path until it ends, then take the salt marshes of Wigtown Bay Nature side road on the left signed Carty Port Reserve, becomes increasingly visible. and Moss of Cree. This leads past the These saltings with their tragic history reed beds fringing the meandering of the Wigtown martyrs, executed by Cree and the former Carty Port, the drowning in 1685 for their adherence site of a former tile and brick works as to the Covenanters’ cause, have well as a reminder of the importance contributed greatly to the character of river and sea-based commercial of the burgh. Today the saltings are trade in the nineteenth century. better known for their spectacular bird life, especially over-wintering The road leads past the birch-fringed wildfowl and both the Martyr’s Moss of Cree, an area of raised Stake and the bird hide at Wigtown bog, much-modified by coniferous Harbour are well worth a visit. plantations. To the left the flat, green fields of the Cree floodplain support The walk ends with a steep climb a thriving dairy farming industry, up to the town centre with its fine 22 characterised by large modern nineteenth century county buildings, pleasant streetscape and bookshops. Walk 9: The Moss Of Cree and Wigtown, Scotland’s Booktown Start

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Newton Stewart and the Galloway Hills

For further information on the area:- Dumfries and Galloway Tourism websites www.visitdumfriesandgalloway.co.uk www.wildseasons.co.uk Newton Stewart town website www.newtonstewart.org Newton Stewart Walking Festival website www.newtonstewartwalkfest.com References: Liz Niven, “Cree Lines”, Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association, 2000 Mary Curran, “The Country Ones”, ReadingLasses Press, Wigtown,1998 Innes McLeod, “Discovering Galloway”, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1986 Photographs by Robert McQuistan, Jim Deans, Bill Mitchell

This brochure has been produced by Newton Stewart Walking Festival / Walkers are Welcome Committee in co-operation with Dumfries and Galloway Council and celebrates 2013, the ‘Year of Natural Scotland’. Grant funding has been provided by Scottish Natural Heritage and Dumfries and Galloway Council. Text by Joan Mitchell.